The Apprentice

Slightly behind on iplayer but what happened to planning? They are just plucking numbers out of the air -- on both pricing and food.

If I was paying £200 a head then I'd want more than some cheesy quavers.

these clowns have got to pay my pension

I am fooked

Deal with the public day in day out bigH that has been
my argument for about the last 15 years apart from the odd one or two
today's youngsters are thicker than thick  no common sense and that's by my only managed
two get three o level standards,or maybe that's why i think they are thick
  They may be super intelligent beings and i just can't see it but i know
which one i believe.

He wants to go to Savile Row for the handkerchief

The Spurs scarf

I've written down the nine items but there are only eight on my list -- a cunning plan by the BBC to make me watch again on iplayer.

Ross digging his own grave with extended boasting about his IQ.

statistically...............

PMSL

Ross's business plan -- basically Fitbits for dogs -- sounded like there could be a lot of money in it. So much so that I'd imagine someone must already be doing it.

Have you seen the Hello Fresh adverts?  I don't know who's behind this organisation but it's the same idea as one of the final five from a few years back.

FITBITS FOR DOGS.ffs that dozy cooont oncoronation street steve McDonald already sorted that out, he ties his own round  leg and sends it running around the park,

Geography and common sense seem to go out of the window. I know most candidates are not from London but some are, and they all have maps.

Spurs scarf -- at one point they were just down the road in Finsbury Park and it never occurred to them that the area near Tottenham's ground might be a good place to find scarves.

Rugelach -- Charles says they can find Jewish bakers in Golders Green but instead they go to Hampstead which is very expensive but also next door to Golders Green.

Time of Day -- the deadline was 7pm but the teams forgot that a lot of shops close at 5 -- including builders' merchants, as the boys discovered to their cost.

seven of the nine items could have been bought in golders green.
the other two , something made in 1947 and the amerstad computer could be purchase somewhere else

They get thicker every year because the prods deliberately dumb it down to make it appeal to a mainstream audience.  If you compare the candidates in series 1 with current series they'd be miles apart.

Agree ClydeBank92, I'm thinking the BBC now owe the muppet show franchise some royalties as this series has obviously infringed their copyright

They get thicker every year because the prods deliberately dumb it down to make it appeal to a mainstream audience.  If you compare the candidates in series 1 with current series they'd be miles apart.

Yes, there is definitely a touch of Big Brother envy in selecting oddballs but I think there is something more subtle going on -- since the change of prize away from a job into the investment in setting up a company, the people who apply are mainly people running small businesses, often as sole traders. In other words, they are the boss or on their own. They are not used to working in teams. The corporate high-flyers from big companies who used to be in the early series are not there any more.

Even worse, some of these people probably do 90 per cent of their business on the internet and never even see a customer or supplier face to face.

I've just had a look at the candidates page on the BBC site and 11 of the original 18 candidates are captioned as business owners.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/N8TcrLGxrf6dYzLZP1zhQj/meet-the-candidates

Since my horse has just been withdrawn, I have time to make a table from the BBC site:

Andrew Brady	Project Engineer
Anisa Topan	Owner, PR Fashion Agency	1
Bushra Shaikh	Owner, Clothing Company	2
Charles Burns	Management Consultant
Danny Grant	Owner, Online Retail Store	3
Elizabeth McKenna	Owner, Florist Chain	4
Elliot Van Emden	Owner, Legal Firm	5
Harrison Jones	Sales Executive
Jade English	PR & Marketing Manager
James White	Recruitment Firm Owner	6
Jeff Wan	Business Analyst
Joanna Jarjue	Digital Marketing Manager
Michaela Wain	Construction Business Owner	7
Ross Fretten	Digital Product Consultant
Sajan Shah	Event Company Owner	8
Sarah Jayne Clark	Clothing Company Owner	9
Sarah Lynn	Confectionery Company Owner	10
Siobhan Smith	Wedding Company Owner	11

Come to thing of it -- looking at that, there do seem to be an awful lot of candidates left so Lord Sugar better get his multiple firing finger out if he wants a winner by Christmas.

4 clothes sellers ebay market stall
flower seller
sweet shop owner,
job agency parasite
wedding seller
event seller
couple in sales

don't think silicon valley will be hanging on every word,last years cheeky plumber sold everything to buy sugar out

Jade didn't say a word in the boardroom

I thought Sarah Jayne was a bit unfortunate. Andrew missold the beer and Charles got them lost.

Yes, I think she was hard done by. It was almost literally a case of not being able to organise a pi$$ up in a brewery.

I guess Alan Sugar just didn't think she had the right stuff to be his business partner.

They all own businesses?!

I guess Alan Sugar just didn't think she had the right stuff to be his business partner.

For the past three weeks at least, Lord Sugar has fired people who have been taking a back seat, aiming to cruise through the process without ever doing very much -- Elliot, Ross and now Sarah Jane. Charles and Andrew may have stuffed up but at least they did something. If she'd been in the final three, then Anisa would have been in danger for the same reason. That said, once all the dead wood has been removed, Andrew and Charles will have to pull a lot of rabbits out of the hat in order to win this.

I thought all 3 would get sacked today. Mainly due to the time-frame but I don't see any of those 3 winning on current evidence.

Yes, that is the odd thing, the timeframe. According to the BBC, who ought to know, this is a 14-episode series.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0071b63/episodes/player

Let's assume two of those episodes will be "Why I fired them" and a profile of the semi-finalists, as in previous years, so there are 12 tasks, of which the last is the final. Yesterday's Bruges cruise was task 6.

There are still 12 candidates left, so unless there are to be eight for the interview round, there need to be some double (at least) firings in the next few weeks.

The show is extremely boring. They brought in new people to play his two sidekicks a few years ago and its about time they replace the Lord Sugar character now.

I only watch it for Anisa

There are usually only 4 for the interview round aren't there. I got this gut feeling that at one stage all of the three of the losing team in the board room in one episode will be fired!

pretty sure its five for interview round

Ok- still means an increase in sackings.

There has to be two I would have thought, expected it yesterday to be honest.

Its unpredictable coz they are all a pretty useless bunch.

The winning team did well to ask for a cut of the chocolate sales but their negotiation was poor.

"We're looking for a five to seven percent cut."

"Ok, I can give you five."

The bottom line is that if these candidates are indeed successful, why do they need 250k with Sralan riding them like a jockey.

Well, if previous series are anything to go by, many of them aren't as successful as they claim to be and some of them aren't even there to win.

Ffs Plat, she's a hound ... & a slapper!

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/4656478/apprentice-anisa-topan-beds-contestant-andrew/

Bunch of Rodneys' rather than Dell Boys'

After all these years its amazing how many people havent realised that the "candidates" are not the tycoons of the future but comedy characters chosen for entertainment value.

Surely almost everyone watching knows that

Whether some of the contestants know it is a more relevant question!

Who on Earth pays £75 or more for a tour of a Belgian city?  I'd have thought a tenner was more likely.

From a cruise ship most  of these tours are pretty expensive, its around 30-40 min from the port so that is included in any tour price, done it twice on a cruise not a tour  just a taxi to the city centre but its pretty much the going rate for a proper tour mind you not that excuse for a tour they put on.

she's just my type, Trilby

You're a very naughty boy Plat! ;)

right we no its tv but if those brought back into the boardroom are actually picked by the project manager its hard to fire 2 ,3 at a time or from now on team leaders will just bring in people they see as dangers not the lemmings they take in ,early in the process

How did the Norman village mistake happen? How could they be so stupid? They even looked at a photo of the village before they chose it.

There are still too many candidates left, and even Lord Sugar alluded to this last night.

Eleven are left which is three too many if we assume there will be five for the interview round. Cue some multiple firings in the next three weeks before the interviews.

might just keep the ones in who make,produce,have invented, something,agh no that,ll mean there,ll be no one left, all glorified salesmen in one form or another

including sugar ^^

Sugar did used to make stuff. Amstrad was at one point the second largest PC manufacturer in Europe.

The trouble with Sugar is that there was never a long term plan with proper investment; he made hi-fi for a bit, computers for a bit, satellite receivers for a bit, but it never really led to anything. That said, how many of his rivals are still in the game?

the wife asked last night what his middle name was ? after seeing his AMS NUMBER plate.is that plate named after Amstrad or are both Amstrad and his no plate named after his initials

I had an Amstrad stero 3rd of the price of the big names,about £99 from memory

@1st time poster -- Amstrad = Alan Michael Sugar Trading.

Amstrad, Amsair, Amsprop -- there's a theme.

ramruma cheers

Next week should be interesting.  How will the muslim woman cope working with dogs?

It's a BBC programme so she gets a bye straight through to the interview round except the public are not made aware of this!

It's a BBC programme so she gets a bye straight through to the interview round except the public are not made aware of this!

Unlike the Asian guy fired this week.

SArah country mile

Sarah is very good but you could be forgiven for thinking she'd already been fired, if you happen to blink during her rare moments of screen time. Whether that is because she never does anything disastrous or just never does anything ...

It is a side-effect of there still being so many candidates left in. There are probably at least half a dozen of them where I'd need a good long think before I could come up with a list of their good or bad points.

Lord Sugar's got the treble up.

Sarah is very good but you could be forgiven for thinking she'd already been fired, if you happen to blink during her rare moments of screen time. Whether that is because she never does anything disastrous or just never does anything ...


Jade is similar. She doesn't seem to do very much and says even less. She rarely speaks in the boardroom or the cafe, hasn't been a PM (?) and I can't recall seeing any her featured in any of the individual "talkinh heads" slots.

That said, I think she's very smart and very careful not to criticise anyone.

£35 or £100 to get their mutt on telly. A lot of Apprentice sales must be down to having a film crew in tow.

Did anyone notice my posting on 9 Nov, 13.40???

Did anyone notice my posting on 9 Nov, 13.40???

Predicting a triple firing? Yes.

And if I've counted correctly, there are still eight candidates left and only two tasks before the interviews, so to get down to five interviewees, there will need to be a double firing either next week or the one after.

Meal boxes. What a fiasco.

Michaela led Harrison by the nose so they ended up with no cooks in the kitchen. Sarah could not see the problem with the name Crusaders. Jade and Joanna spent so long arguing over the name -- which does not really matter anyway -- that they ran out of time to design the box which ended up as plain cardboard. Liz has Michelin-worthy knife skills but burned the salmon in the live demo because she was distracted by the allegedly comic pitch routine her team had devised but not rehearsed.

Seven left which means two must be fired next week to get down to five interviewees.

Note the traditional extra programme on the traditional wrong day:

The Final Five -- Friday 8 December 11.25pm (half an hour later in Northern Ireland)

So it is:
Fashion Show task next week when two candidates must leave
then the Final Five profiles (as above, on Friday)
then Interviews
then Why I Fired Them (on Thursday 14/12)
then the final on Sunday 17/12 (traditionally after Sports Personality of the Year has overrun).

Jade and Joanna were very lucky. One or both would surely have been fired if their team had lost (which they should have).

I've said it before but I'm pretty sure meal boxes was the business idea of one of the final final five from a few years back.

Do you mean Jade? (tall blonde)

Very hard to say until you know more about their business plans.

Jade went down in my estimation after the recent episode and is only 25. Joanna seems to be dificult to work with and is only 23.

Based on what we know, I'd say Sarah-Jayne.

Sorry, I meant Sarah-Lynn (slim, straight, light brown hair).

Michaela has a shout.

Joanna and Elizabeth can probably be ruled out.

I would only oppose Elizabeth because Alan Sugar may not see her as being able to manage staff effectively and the type of person he would want to be in business with.

I think it's filmed in the summer - up to the final. Not sure when that's filmed.

The contestants LinkdIn pages show a little info.  Joanne has said she was involved with the apprentice for a greater number of months (can't recall off hand) than Jade.  My guess is that she was jobless at the start of the period.

The contestants LinkdIn pages show a little info.  Joanne has said she was involved with the apprentice for a greater number of months (can't recall off hand) than Jade.  My guess is that she was jobless at the start of the period.

The contestants LinkdIn pages show a little info

No spoilers please. Around this time the results do sometimes leak, often from forensic analysis of candidates' activities in the last few months.

decided and probably well on the way to been bankrupt, besides the winner who got a job as an office boy and helps with interviews in the cv round,the rest of the winners couldn't afford a night out between them ,if they were forced to pay back their debts 1st

@i_agree_with_nick -- I've said it before but I'm pretty sure meal boxes was the business idea of one of the final final five from a few years back.


You may be right. It sounds familiar but I cannot put my finger on it.

Harrison might have done himself a favour here by winning this task with something similar to his business plan, since Lord Sugar may well have bent the task's industry experts' ears on whether it is a goer. Last week I could not have told you what Harrison had done all series apart from some third rate crooning in the Wembley task. Now I think he could win.

Harrison sacked just a couple of days after I post that he could win :( Jade out as well.

So that leaves: Joanna, Elizabeth, Sarah, Michaela and James.

The Final Five programme is on Friday at 11.25pm -- one for iplayer, perhaps.

Michaela is my idea of the winner.

Surely, it can't be Joanna or Elizabeth.

Sugar will be impressed by James's ability to earn top dosh.  If his business idea is related to recruiting, he may have a chance.  Sugar has a history of investing in recruitment firms (Ricky)

Lord Sugar will like Elizabeth's strong work ethic but might grow tired of being talked to as if he were a particularly dim toddler at nursery school.

Joanna did well in the fashion task which is where her proposal lies but she seems to take any disagreement as a personal insult.

James is all right but what's he done, and spending the last task modelling (when as Claude pointed out, they'd got professional models, makes me wonder if he's not really after a media career.

Sarah seems calm and the most professional but she's made the odd rick.

It is down to the interviews next -- which really means the business plans.

business plans, LOL

IS there any business plan from past series still up and running, the gobby monkey wrench plumber from last year bought sugar out, and it was that good a plan sugar didn't stay in it 6 months

In episode 1, right at the start, they had the previous winners back on and they all talked a good game about how well they were doing.

Final Five programme (via iplayer because all good people are in bed by 10 o'clock, as a previous prime minister once told us).

Michaela's offices seemed to be unheated seeing how her employees were dressed up to explore the Antarctic, so is her company doing as well as she says? She mentioned millions in turnover but turnover is not profit, as any losing betting shop punter can tell you. On a personal front, it is great she had a baby after several miscarriages and treatment in America.

Elizabeth was born in Australia, and it was implied the family came to Britain to escape her father. She took out a bank loan to buy a florist's shop, and has since expanded to three (or was it five?) shops.

Joanna was born in Gambia. Like Elizabeth, she was brought to this country as a child. She has a degree and iirc is 22 years old so might not have as much experience as some of the others but her colleagues seemed to rate her.

Sarah seemed to have more screen-time than the others, though I did not time it and it would be slightly surprising if they were not all equal. Her sweets company did not impress me, as it seemed to be more about fancy packaging than quality ingredients, but there seemed to be more than a dozen employees so she must be doing something right.

Pressed send before saying anything about James.

His dad was a furrier but lost everything when the bottom fell out of that market. Lots of business as a child -- three paper rounds and car-washing (though it might have helped they were in a prosperous village -- lots of customers willing to pay money to save time, and not much competition.

The trailers for the interviews showing James admitting to getting sacked but here he seemed to be a star of the recruitment agency (£100,000 in his first year) so there is a chance that is a misleading edit and they were talking about a Friday-evening stint behind the bar or something.

After the interviews, we are left with James and Sarah.

Fired were:
Michaela -- 57 other businesses.
Elizabeth -- hard to work with.
Joanna -- no experience in the rag trade.

I didn't expect that!

Me neither.

Tbh I dozed off during SPotY and only woke up for the pitches.

The "You're Hired" programme was excruciating.

3 artisan sweet shops in every town in the uk the only USP this girl had was unlike 99.999999% of those sweet shops she after 7 years in business had no website or online business, in the dragons den neither would have been allowed out of the lift,anyone thinking sugar is going to throw money at a sweet shop needs their bumps feeling she,ll get a job answering the phone and making coffee in one of his offices,same happened to one of the girls who won a few years back and she tried to sue sugar I think,shows becoming an absolute joke

Should of hired NEITHER of them! If that's the standard of marketing neither businesses will last a year. SrAlan will claim a tax loss and the pair will be tootling along on their own.

WHIST THE wife was in her pinney in the kitchen,doing my tea and polishing my shoes she shouted through,
online sweet business has to be CLICK AND MIX,

SHE,S wasted on me I,ll have to put her housekeeping up